


Home Alone: Alien Invasion Edition

by Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate, Home Alone (Movies)
Genre: (on both an Animorphs and a Home Alone Scale), Canon-Typical Violence, Crack Crossover, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Kevin is too smart for his own good, The Sharing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28490088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell/pseuds/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell
Summary: Kevin knows something's not right with the Sharing. He's got to be clever and he's got to be subtle- luckily for him, he's good at both.It might just be lucky for other people too.
Relationships: Kate McCallister & Kevin McCallister, Kevin McAllister & the Animorphs
Comments: 94
Kudos: 94





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by an ask that I sent to thejakeformerlyknownasprince on tumblr, which turned into a glorious thread that you can read here:
> 
> https://thejakeformerlyknownasprince.tumblr.com/post/639035421108666368/i-dont-know-if-ive-sent-it-to-you-yet-but-in
> 
> Home Alone: Alien Invasion Edition is just the working title because I can't come up with a serious one lmao. I might leave it like that or I might change it. I hope you enjoy reading, regardless!

Kevin McAllister is one smart kid- too smart for his own good, is what his father likes to tell him. After the third time someone tries to break into their giant house in Chicago and Kevin wards the robbers off  _ again,  _ Kate and Peter decide it might be time for them to move.

“A fresh start.” Kate tells thirteen year old Kevin, as he hurries to tape down his box of firecrackers he’s bringing with them before she can see what’s inside of it. “Maybe we can move closer to Buzz. I know he would like that.”

Kevin scoffs. The relationship between him and Buzz has gotten better since Buzz went off to college, but not by a lot. Buzz doesn’t torment him anymore, and Kevin stays out of his room when Buzz visits. They’re never going to be best friends. 

But there’s hope glowing in his mom’s eyes, and Kevin doesn’t have the heart to tell her what he suspects- that the trouble will just follow him. Their family is well off. People are going to keep trying to rob them, and Kevin can’t just let that happen. He doesn’t tell his Mom that, though. He just smiles sweetly at her and nods. 

“I think it’ll be great,” He tells her, searching for the words that will put her mind at ease. “I can always find something to do, and it’s better than  _ Florida.”  _

She giggles a little at that, so Kevin pitches his voice higher, the way it sounded when he was nine before their last impromptu separation. 

“It’s not a  _ tropical  _ climate, Mom.” He says, and she starts laughing. He’s done what he set out to do, so he smiles and reaches for another packing box. 

Maybe his parents will be right and it will be a fresh start- Kevin wishes that could be the case. But he’s pretty sure his life isn’t going to change that dramatically just by switching houses. 

If it can’t be a fresh start, he at least hopes that it’ll be an adventure for him. 

* * *

Kevin turns out to be right. 

When they move to their new home- a beautiful looking building, in a nice town called Santa Barbara, people come and volunteer to help unload the truck. 

His Mom accepts eagerly and gushes to his Dad about how nice they are. Megan and Linnie giggle to themselves about sweet neighbor boys and chivalry, and Kevin goes out to the truck to help unload, just to get away from it for a moment. 

Someone is jumping out of the truck, one of his boxes in their arms, so Kevin steps forward.

“That’s mine- I can take it.” He tells the stranger, who hands over the box willingly enough. He’s maybe sixteen- about the same age as Linnie, come to think of it. 

“No problem.” The stranger says, smiling. Kevin notices the smile doesn’t  _ quite  _ meet his eyes- he’s dealt with enough people pretending to recognize the signs of someone playing nice. He brushes it off as someone who didn’t really want to help being dragged out to play Good Samaritan. “You must be Kevin, right? I think I’ve met everyone else.”

“Yeah, that’s me.” Kevin says, tucking his box under his arm. The stranger takes a different box from someone near the edge of the truck, and the person moves back inside of it. “It’s good to meet you, uh…”

“Tom Berenson.” The stranger says, holding out his hand. Kevin reaches out and shakes it, smiling. “It’s nice to meet you too. Wanna show me where these go?”

“Yeah, sure, just follow me.” Kevin says, and waves him into the house. Some part of his mind that takes over in the situations where he’s not sure he can trust someone kicks in, and he finds himself taking the most convoluted route he possibly can through the house. The whole time, he makes sure to keep up a conversation, hoping to keep Tom at ease. 

“So… are you volunteering for a resume, or something?” He asks. “Or did one of your parents make you?”

“Oh, nothing like that.” Tom says, shifting his grip on the box so it’s more secure. “I work with a volunteer organization- I have for a while now. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but it’s called the Sharing.”

Kevin fights and manages not to raise an eyebrow, but keeps his voice light. “I don’t think I’ve really heard of anything like that.” He says. 

“You’re missing out, then.” Tom tells him, an odd  _ gleam  _ lighting up his eyes. It’s the same sort of look Harry got the last time he caught up to Kevin- it’s  _ malicious,  _ almost. “It’s a blast- I know the volunteering might seem like a chore, but we do a lot of fun stuff, too. We’ve got all kinds of events.”

“Like what?” Kevin says, careful to keep his voice casual. Not suspicious, not interested, just talking. 

“We do a lot of community barbecues.” Tom says, as they lower down the boxes and head back for more. “Charity events and stuff, too- and it all goes to the community. We’ve got a lot of plans in the works. It’s only right that we give back, don’t you think?”

Kevin makes a non-committal noise in the back of his throat, and Tom takes that as permission to keep talking. 

“Plus, it’s just really cool to be a part of something- better than just being on your own, I think. You should come sometime, I bet you’d like it.”

Alarm bells are going off in Kevin’s head like crazy, but he summons that same sweet smile he can always muster up, to throw off suspicion. 

“I dunno. Probably not for a while.” He says. “I gotta get my bearings around town and the new school first, and there’s so much to move in. It’s a big change from Chicago to here, you know? I’m just not ready for volunteer work yet, even with all of the perks that might go along with it.”

He looks hard at Tom, keeping the sweet, regretful rejection on his face.

_ Nothing’s off here,  _ he thinks, as if that will make Tom believe it.  _ You don’t gotta worry about me. _

“I get it.” Tom says after a minute. “ Just wanted to extend the invitation.”

“Thank you.” Kevin says, his voice just as sweet as the time he tricked the concierge into leaving him alone in New York. 

Tom seems to lose interest in talking with him after that, the gleam fading out of his eyes. He’s mostly silent as they haul in the rest of the stuff- which is made a lot faster when the rest of Kevin’s siblings come out to help. 

Kevin puts it out of his mind until he’s alone- he wouldn’t want to give his parents any reason to be worried. They moved so that they wouldn’t  _ have  _ to be worried about him. 

But when they go their separate ways to unpack, the questions come out. He arranges the stuff under his bed, carefully pushing his boxes of tricks and traps to where he can reach but no one will notice, and he wonders.

Why was Tom so eager to have Kevin join them for meetings? Why was he pushing the pros of it? What was with that  _ part of something  _ quote, and why does it stick out to Kevin so bad?

He knows for a fact that his family doesn’t see anything to dislike about the people who came to help today. He knows from their point of view, it’s not suspicious. But Kevin’s been through a lot in his thirteen years of life, and the way Tom looked at him- it wasn’t a friendly look. It was a look that promised that he was going to regret whatever Tom wanted him to agree to. 

So, one thing is for sure- Kevin doesn’t trust the Sharing. He wants to know  _ why  _ he doesn’t trust them, but he knows for a fact that you don’t find things out just by asking. And if he’s too obvious, he’ll get himself in hot water. He doesn’t even have anyone like Mr. Marley or the woman from New York on his side now.

He’s got to be quick, and he’s got to be careful. 

Luckily for him, Kevin is good at both. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the support!! I was totally blown away by it.

Over the next week, Kevin is incredibly cautious with his investigation. He doesn’t know what the deal is with Tom and the other members of the Sharing, but he knows one thing: he does  _ not  _ want to end up on their radar.

So he’s quiet. He does his best work when he’s got a goal in mind, and now is no different. 

What he finds out:

One- The Sharing is more than just a volunteer organization or a nonprofit. They’ve got their fingers in all kinds of pies. They own huge amounts of land and buildings, and they’re consistently throwing crowd-drawing events. The buildings and businesses they contribute to have a shocking rate of disasters happening to them. One day, browsing old newspapers (with a smile for the librarian and a lie about current events on his tongue), he finds out about a break in to some tower. That same night, the entire top of the tower was broken, an unidentifiable mass of metal found on the sidewalk that was rapidly cleaned up. 

(There was also strange remains of some shipwreck they volunteered that Kevin finds a blurb of, but no photos.)

Two- Santa Barbara has a bit of a wild animal problem. Kevin finds a  _ lot  _ of articles talking about things that animals have done- an eagle stealing some guys shotgun and a beer. Elephants destroying a used car lot.  _ Tigers  _ on the loose, for Pete’s sake. He’s not quite sure what to make of this information, but with the repeated incidents, it seems important. Also important is the fact that they seem to crash a good portion of the Sharing functions. So he files this information away for later, and continues on.

Three- every member of The Sharing is odd. It’s something that no one seems to pick up on. Or if they do, they’re like Kevin, and smart enough not to let on. Kevin speaks to a few of them in the next few days- Tom was only the first. There’s the leader of their little Neighborhood Watch (Kevin hates to think of the convenience of  _ that),  _ there’s the cashier he talks to at McDonalds, and then…

Then his parents take him to get enrolled in school, which leads to a discussion with the Vice Principal. Right away, Kevin can tell that Chapman is one of  _ them,  _ the unspecified variable that makes the Sharing members so suspicious. He turns up the charm, sweet and polite and never suspicious. The shy new boy at a new school. 

When Chapman asks him about it, Kevin shrugs, allowing a sheepish look to cross over his face. 

“I’m still trying to get settled here, Mr. Chapman. And to be honest, my focus isn’t the best when it’s divided. I’d rather keep working and make sure I succeed in school, don’t you think?”

And then an interesting thing happens.

Chapman’s teeth grit- though not with the fury that’s showing in his eyes. This is the kind of grimace that Kevin knows, because he’s felt  _ himself  _ make it. It’s the kind of face you make when you’re backed into a corner, thinking no one is going to come and save you.

For one singular moment, Kevin can see that his Vice Principal is  _ terrified.  _

Then the mask slams back down, first the terror vanishing and then the fury. Left in its place is an understanding smile and eyes that look positively dead inside. 

For the first time since he’s moved, Kevin feels fear trickle down his spine and not just caution. 

“Of course.” Chapman says. “ Excelling in school at your age is absolutely important to a better future.”

Kevin smiles and promptly fades into the background until his mom and dad are done hashing out the details of him attending school. On the way home, his father pats him on the back and congratulates him for wanting to do good. 

His mother beams and declares that she just  _ knew  _ the fresh start would be good for their family, and for Kevin especially. 

“I really want to take advantage of it,” Kevin agrees, and then convinces his mom to buy him Wendy’s while he mulls over this new information. 

Whatever’s going on with The Sharing, it’s so awful that even some of the people who are in it are clearly scared. 

Kevin becomes even more determined to get to the bottom of things. 

* * *

He keeps digging through old newspapers- the Librarian is absolutely  _ thrilled  _ to find a new regular coming to the Library. Or at least, he thinks she is. Her scowl eventually starts to soften the more days he comes in. 

He’s as polite as ever to her, and he’s  _ sure  _ he’s going to find something in the old newspapers soon. He just doesn’t know what…

Until he comes across the mention of the illegal fireworks show in the sidebar of one newspaper from several months back. Kevin thinks about it and writes about it in his own notes, which he burns later. 

Whatever this so called fireworks show was, it was only  _ after  _ that that the animal appearances started. And only after that that the disasters to Sharing buildings happened. 

Watching the flames flicker over the paper, the smoke curling up and out the open window, Kevin begins to build the most fragile of theories. 

He would bet his entire life savings ( so far, four hundred dollars from odd jobs- he never knows when he’ll need an emergency cash stash for those  _ situations  _ he gets in) that that fireworks show was nothing so simple as that.

There’s something  _ bad  _ about the Sharing. He can feel that down in his bones. And if he can feel it, it’s quite possible that other people could have figured it out too. 

And then the attacks, like the break ins, could have been attempts to stop it. To gather media attention, maybe. But it doesn’t feel like a cry for attention. It feels like Kevin’s last stands, his defenses of the things he holds dear.

Someone is fighting against the Sharing. He wants to know who, and he wants to know  _ why.  _ More importantly, he wants to know if there’s any way he can help. He can’t just let things stand the way they are. 

To make his plan, though, he needs more information. And to get more information, he needs to go to where it all started. 

He grabs his backpack, a wad of firecrackers, and a bb gun, the last of which he stuffs in his backpack. Then he heads down the stairs.

“Mom!” He calls, as he opens the front door. “I’m going for a walk!”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin realizes he _might_ be in over his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I typically don't write stories this fast, but this one is just STICKING with me for some reason! I know I've replied to like literally one comment, but I've read every single one. Your support has knocked me flat on my back, honestly. It makes me so happy to see so many people like this. 
> 
> Anyways, here's the next chapter! I hope to start introducing the Animorphs soon!

On his walk to the abandoned construction site, Kevin is entirely aware of his surroundings. The fear on the vice principal’s face has refused to fade from his mind, and this has led to him being  _ maybe  _ a little cautious, as the route he takes is entirely too winding for him. 

Finally, finally, he enters the construction site, and he can confirm whether or not he’s being followed. His footsteps slow, and he feels the curiosity begin to bubble up under the surface as he looks around. There’s old equipment still there- a crane, an earthmover, things like that. Kevin’s fingers itch with the urge to climb up in them and see if he can figure out their controls, but he lets out a sigh and drops his hands. He’s got other stuff to do than satisfy personal curiosity.

… Even if it would be  _ really  _ cool.

He shakes his head to clear it, and then starts his slow search. Just curious. Just wandering around. He picks up a rock here and there and lightly tosses them, hoping if anyone is watching it will give weight to the “bored little kid” cover. 

He hops up on a wall and throws his arms out to balance as he wanders across it. Up here he can see better. He’s not seeing anything out of place yet, and a part of him is bitterly whispering that he’s too late, he’s still in the dark, he won’t find anything out-

And then his foot catches on an edge of brick, and he stumbles and  _ barely  _ manages to keep from hitting the ground face first by throwing his hands out to catch his fall. They  _ slam  _ down against the surface and he catches his breath before lowering himself off of the small wall, grimacing when he sees that his palms are all scraped to hell. 

There’s no blood, fortunately. Nothing that could give away someone was poking around there. But the rest of the wall is perfectly aligned, and  _ that  _ piques his interest, because that means there’s something wrong with that specific stretch of wall. 

So he starts looking, and poking around, and finds it within a minute. 

The  _ it  _ in question is… a blue box. 

That’s all it is. It’s small and bright blue, and when he picks it up, it starts glowing softly. He inspects it and finds there’s small writing on it, all in a language he’s never even seen before. A part of him wonders if it’s anything like the wreckage that washed up on the beach, and he dismisses it. The beach isn’t anything he can figure out.  _ This?  _ This, he can. 

When he holds it up to his ear, he hears a soft humming coming from inside of it, almost inaudible. He wants to take the time to probe at it, but he  _ doesn’t  _ have that luxury. So instead, he unzips his backpack and slips it inside. The box is small enough that he can cover it with both his hands. 

That turns out to be a smart choice, because when he starts to backtrack and head out of the construction site, he hears  _ grating.  _ Like something coming up from underground. He dives behind a pile of rubble and listens, holding his breath. 

“The Escafil device is somewhere around here.” Says a voice, terse and businesslike. “An energy source appeared on the radar not ten minutes ago.”

There are murmured sounds of interest, and the voice allows it, but after a minute, it cuts them off to continue. 

“The Visser will have our  _ hides  _ if we don’t find that thing. You know what to do. And if anyone has it… don’t be afraid to take lethal measures.”

A chill runs down Kevin’s spine.  _ He  _ wants to run. He looks up at the sky, gauging the time- it’s sunset. His wandering took more time than he realized. But more importantly, the incoming dusk makes it so they won’t really be able to pick out any defining features when it comes to him.

Kevin  _ runs.  _

His feet fly under him, and people are shouting, but he doesn’t look back. For some people, the fear would make the world blur. Things wouldn’t become recognizeable.

Not for Kevin.

For Kevin, the fear  _ sharpened  _ things. The world slowed. Everything came into focus, one crystalline piece at a time. Judging by the footfalls coming after him, they were adults. None of them were particularly fast- Kevin was outpacing them by a  _ lot.  _

There was an abandoned, partially built building on his side. More tunnels than anything. Kevin dove into it, and kept running, hoping he wouldn’t trip over anything. 

Now that they were in an enclosed space, the people chasing him were starting to catch up. Kevin felt a breeze whisper down a hallway, and ducked inside of it. 

A lighter flickered on, and Kevin stared into a grizzled old face. In the dim light he could see a sleeping bag, a backpack, and a jacket, wadded up like a pillow- someone camping out there to be out and away from the elements. 

“I will give you twenty dollars  _ right now  _ if you do this one small thing for me.” Kevin says, and the man blinks before nodding, looking startled. 

A moment later Kevin has the firecrackers out and the lighter in hand, and he mouths  _ cover your ears  _ at the man. The man nods, and then shouts.

“I don’t know  _ who you are,  _ but if you take  _ one  _ step closer, I will shoot!” 

The footsteps continue to approach.

Kevin presses the twenty into the man’s hand, and lights off the firecrackers before covering his ears. The man follows suit a moment later. 

When the string is out and the world goes quiet, Kevin hands the man back his lighter again and whispers a  _ thank you  _ before creeping back out into the main tunnel, just for a look.

He can see them twenty feet down, at the entrance, but he knows they haven’t seen him, because they’re talking amongst themselves. He ducks back into the side tunnel, still listening. 

“What do you  _ mean,  _ you let them get away?” Someone snaps, and Kevin pokes his head out again, watching. 

“He had a gun-”

“What’s worse?” The leader asks, voice suddenly smooth. “A gunshot wound, or dealing with the Visser?”

Kevin can’t help but feel almost  _ bad  _ for those poor souls, even if they were trying to kill him a moment before.

“D-dealing with the Visser. Sir.” One of them says- a woman, Kevin thinks. 

“Are you sure?” The leader answers. “You don’t sound sure. Maybe I should convince you.”

Kevin sees a red flash, and hears a  _ TSEWW  _ sound. Then the woman collapses,  _ screaming,  _ and Kevin’s breath hitches in his throat. 

There’s a perfectly round hole in her gut, and its cauterized. Kevin can  _ smell  _ burning flesh, and he tries hard not to retch. He manages it, watching as two of the other searchers pick up the woman and haul her away. Through her screams, Kevin thinks he can hear the leader saying something about taxes, even if that doesn’t quite make sense. 

He hurries home that night, his heart in his throat as he locks his door and slips the box out of the backpack. 

  
Just  _ what  _ has he gotten himself into?


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin tries to figure out what's so special about the box he found earlier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! My fourth semester of college starts tomorrow and I'm in five classes total, so updates will probably slow a bit- just as a heads up. I hope that you enjoy this!

Kevin hides the little blue box- the Escafil Device- in the same box that he stores his firecrackers in. Absolutely no one but him knows about that box, so it should be okay for a bit. As Kevin heads down the stairs, the only thing he can remember is that woman collapsing. The smell of burning skin still lingers in his nose. 

He tries to reason with himself that it shouldn’t bother him- hasn’t he set Harry’s head on fire twice? Didn’t he brand that man’s hand? Why does witnessing something he didn’t do bother him so much?

The issue, he realizes, is that he had given them  _ chances.  _ Marv and Harry had gotten so many before Kevin had to escalate to his house of traps. This woman had tried to back down and received a hole in the gut for her efforts.

He pushes it to the back of his mind for now, pasting on a smile as he enters the kitchen and picks up a plate to go get dinner- pizza, thank god. He doesn’t think his stomach would be able to handle hamburger… or really, any other kind of meat at the moment. 

And there was even cheese! Small mercies- since Buzz had moved out, he at least didn’t have to spend an extra ten minutes peeling sausages or olives off before he could eat. Momentarily cheered, he wolfed down two pieces, talking with his parents about the stuff he had done that day. 

“I walked by the mall earlier, it looks  _ huge.  _ I might have to check it out on some other weekend.” He tells his dad, watching as the smile flickers over his face. 

“So long as you don’t cut through that construction site!” His mom says, dropping her plate in the sink and placing a kiss on the top of his head as if he’s still six. “I was talking to Jodie today, she says there was a  _ shootout  _ there just before you got home. I was scared you had cut through there.”

Jodie- the leader of the Neighborhood Watch. A member of the Sharing. Kevin’s heart momentarily dropped, but he rallied and forced a smile.

“Mom, I’m thirteen years old. Do you  _ really  _ think I’d be brave enough to walk through a place like that without at  _ least  _ having an adult around?”

She smiles, reassured for now, and then Linnie speaks up.

“I dunno, Kev. You aren’t brave, but you  _ are  _ pretty stupid.”

“Oh, ha- ha, Lin.” Kevin tells her, though he can feel the pit in his stomach easing slightly, just from being around his family. Linnie gives him a cheeky smile, and Kevin relaxes further. 

His mom finishes up with her drink and heads into the next room, probably to work on more fashion designs, and Kevin rips one of his pizza crusts in half, and shoves half in his mouth. He chews and swallows and then excuses himself by saying he’s going to go up to his room to unwind. To get a good night’s sleep so that he’ll do well for his first day of school tomorrow.

His father accepts the excuse and Kevin hugs him goodnight, tightly, needing to feel safe. If only for a moment. Peter hugs him back and it feels like Kevin can  _ breathe.  _ But all too soon he has to pull away, or his father is going to notice something’s up.

Then he’s running up the stairs to lock himself in his room and diving under his bed to dig out the firecracker box.

When he has the box, he pulls the cube out and carries it over to his desk to fiddle with it, to try and figure out what it does and how it works. 

Pressing every inch of the cube doesn’t activate anything. Pressing down from one side only makes it glow brighter, revealing it’s still not all the way lit up. 

He tries to twist it like a Rubix cube and it twists clean in half. The two halves lie in his hands, and he can’t help but stare at them, intrigued. 

It takes a bit more twisting and prying, but eventually he ends up with six pieces, all evenly sized and spread across his desk. Further examination of the blue box- the  _ Escafil Device,  _ whatever that means- reveals there’s small, one letter inscriptions on each piece. As Kevin fits them all back together, he realizes they must be insertion instructions. Put Tab  _ A  _ into Slot  _ B  _ and the like. It gives him a little chuckle, and he’s got the box clicked all together again before too long. 

He leaves the box on the desk and pulls out a paper and a marker- one of the crayola ones. It’s the only method he thinks would work. Pen or pencil would leave indentations that someone could sweep a pencil over and read his notes. Crayon would make them harder to burn. Marker dries relatively fast and burns easier than crayon.

In careful block lettering, he writes what he knows.

  * The sharing is worse than a cult, which is what he had previously thought they were. Now he’s thinking a possible mob organization. 
  * The Sharing has access to high-tech things including what he can only think of as _laser guns._ They also were able to pick up on the initial surge of the Device coming to life when he picked it up, so they’ve got fairly decent radar. 
  * The Sharing isn’t afraid to use lethal methods, even on their own members when said members make a mistake. They’re brutal, and they’re ruthless. 
    * More than that, they aren’t afraid to do a little digging of their own. No way does Kevin believe that the leader of the Neighborhood Watch was just casually mentioning it to his mother. She was looking for a reaction, and Kevin is beyond grateful that he’s got such a good poker face after dealing with the crooks that he’s dealt with in the past few years. 
  * Whatever this box actually does, there’s no lengths they won’t go to to get it from him. 



Which leads him to the natural conclusion that he has to keep it a secret- from everyone. He can’t even trust his mom with this, because she would let it slip innocently, and then him and his entire family would likely be rat bait. 

Which means that Kevin is entirely, utterly alone. That’s fine. He’s been in worse spots than this before- the Sharing doesn’t even know he’s on to them yet.

Really, he can do this. 

_ Trust no one.  _ Kevin writes, underlining it once. And then again, to really drive the point home to himself. He can’t even rely on kind old strangers like Mr. Marley, or the woman from New York, or even the homeless man he met earlier that day. 

He caps the marker carefully and picks up the paper, waving it back and forth to let the ink dry. Then he reaches for a lighter, and pushes his window open, setting the edge of his notes on fire. He watches the flame curl up the edges and over the ink, and lets himself breathe. He’s got to take time to figure out his next move. 

_ One piece at a time. A giant chess game.  _

It’s as he’s thinking this that he sees the hawk swooping down, the sunlight glowing through red tail feathers. 

Heading  _ directly for his window.  _

Kevin lets out a  _ shriek  _ on impulse and drops the last of the burning paper to the ground two stories below- it’ll be ashes by the time it gets to the dirt- and  _ slams  _ the window shut. 

The bird doesn’t slow, and instead  _ slams  _ right into the window. 

And falls, spiraling, to land right in one of the bushes outside. 

Kevin takes a deep breath and stuffs the device in the box of firecrackers before kicking it under the bed, trying to compose himself. A floor below, his Mom calls his name, sounding worried.

He takes another deep breath, and gets ready to face the music.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kevin gets another piece of the puzzle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna wait a few weeks for updating so I could get into the swing of the semester, but then I did like twenty five assignments in three days and decided I had enough of a handle on things to write another chapter.
> 
> I'm still figuring out an overarching plot, but I think I'm getting there! And it's fun to write.
> 
> Thanks again for all your wonderful comments, it's what inspires me to keep going on this! I hope you like this new chapter and that your day is wonderful.

Kevin meets his mother at the door to his room, his heart still racing in his chest.

“Are you okay?” She asks. “I thought I heard something, and then you screamed, and-”

Kevin thinks fast, taking a few steps forwards to throw his arms around his Mom. She’s distracted for the moment, hugging him and telling him it’s okay. No looking around his room to see if anything is normal- which is good. He wouldn’t want her to have any chance to see if things were out of place.

“A bird flew into my window, that’s all.” He says when he steps back. “Some kind of bird of prey- it startled me.”

He makes his voice just a  _ hint  _ embarrassed, and his Mom smiles indulgently. 

“I’d scream too.” She says. “Is it okay?”

“...I dunno. Can we go check on it?” Kevin asks. She nods and he closes his door behind them, racing down the stairs. The only time he pauses is to confirm that she’s behind him, not looking around his room.

He throws open the back door and heads out, making a beeline for the bushes. No matter how terrifying that moment was, he doesn’t want to have accidentally  _ killed  _ the poor thing trying to keep it from getting inside. 

He can see the bird is just starting to wake up, and tries to see if he can remember anything on handling injured birds. He comes up empty, unfortunately. The only thing he can remember is not to touch baby birds otherwise their moms won’t come and get them.

He  _ has  _ seen his dad help birds back on their feet after things, though, so maybe he can manage it. He reaches out with both hands, hoping to pick it up around the middle and get it righted-

“Kevin,  _ don’t!”  _ His mother calls, just as the hawk starts flailing, slicing Kevin’s arm with it’s talons.

Kevin  _ yelps,  _ pained, and jumps back, clapping his hand over his arm as blood starts to well up. He doesn’t try to help it again, and after a minute or so it rights itself. He watches it take off, flapping  _ hard  _ to get back up in the air. 

“Let me see that!” Kate says, and Kevin holds his arm out willingly. The talon wounds aren’t  _ too  _ deep, but they  _ are  _ wide, and it makes his Mom wince with sympathy. He watches as the hawk disappears so he can partially tune out his Mom’s fussing, and then he lets her haul him inside to disinfect the cuts thoroughly and put steri strips on them, even though all he really wants to do is go to bed and sleep straight through tomorrow.

Between the pieces that he’s slowly trying to click together with the Sharing, the woman he saw get  _ shot  _ that day, and the mysterious box, Kevin has a lot on his plate already. He’s not really looking forward to school, even though he lies and says he is when his Dad asks him just before bed. 

Staring up at the ceiling that night, all he can think about is how he feels the same way he did in New York- like he’s in way over his head. 

His parents are just down the hall this time around, but the fact remains- Kevin feels more alone than ever right now.

* * *

The morning comes, and Kevin goes to school with it.

He keeps a careful watch on the other students as they mill around outside before the bell rings, trying to see if he can tell who’s a member of the Sharing and who’s not. The differences are really subtle, but they’re  _ there.  _ Just a slightly different gleam in their eyes. Just a slightly stiffer posture. 

(He’s so busy watching the other students that he forgets to look  _ up,  _ and so he misses a familiar red tailed hawk flying in lazy, wide circles overhead. He misses the way five students, spread across the yard of the school, glance up at it and then at one another, eyes wide and uncertain.)

He steers clear of the Sharing kids that he spots, and manages to settle along one of the fences, opening up one of the books he’s supposed to be reading later this year. He’s tempted to read for a head start, but really he’s only reading because he’s  _ bored.  _ His mom rushed him out the door too early that morning and he’s still got about ten minutes before they need to head for their lockers, and Kevin remembers where all of his classes are placed. 

He barely gets done with the first page before a shadow falls over him, obscuring the light he was using to read. He looks up, into the face of a girl with dark brown skin and a warm smile, and relaxes slightly.

She doesn’t have the mannerisms of one of the Sharing members, but she doesn’t move quite like a normal kid does either. If anything, she reminds Kevin of himself- cautious of the world around her and trying not to show it. 

“Hey,” She says, and nods at the gauze wrapped over the steri strips on his arm. “What happened there?”

Kevin grimaces, letting his fingers drift to the gauze. 

“A bird flew right into my window last night.” He tells her, keeping his voice light so it’s not a big deal. “I went out and tried to pick it up to check on it, and the thing clawed the heck out of me.”

“Rookie mistake.” The girl says with a light chuckle and another smile, and Kevin’s surprised at how at ease he feels around someone who seems like she knows more than she lets on. “I work with my parents at our rehab center for animals- some of them get  _ cranky.  _ I’m Cassie, by the way.” She adds on, almost as if it’s an afterthought. 

“Kevin McAllister. I’m new here.” He tells her, and she nods, smiling. 

“I thought I didn’t recognize you. It’s nice to meet you, Kevin.”

The bell rings and Kevin gets up, dusts off his jeans. 

“Nice to meet you too, Cassie.” He tells her. “See you around?”

“Maybe!” She says, “if we have any classes together.”

Kevin nods, and she walks off towards a tall girl with blonde hair. He heads for the building, but not before he sees a couple of people headed Cassie and the other girl’s way, trying to act casual, but moving with a  _ purpose.  _

Well. 

He doesn’t know much about this new town, so maybe they’re all friends or something. But the way they were moving reminds Kevin of the way he’d rush around when a mission was brewing- when he had to protect his home, or the time he stopped that one robbery. So he’s not very inclined to dismiss it as coincidences. 

Cassie wasn’t talking to him just to be nice, he thinks. And she didn’t seem that surprised by his comment about the bird and the window- she hadn’t even raised an eyebrow. So she was looking for some other kind of information, and judging from the way he can practically  _ feel  _ eyes on him, he’s pretty sure she didn’t get it.

Now, if only he can keep it that way.

Kevin ducks around a high schooler and into his first classroom of the day. He introduces himself to the teacher and to the class, but his mind is elsewhere even when he starts taking notes.

He’s making another plan, thinking about the layout of his house. Wondering if it’s time to gear up to defend it, again.

Whatever comes his way, he can handle it, he tells himself. 

And hopes that he’s not just thinking it to make himself feel better.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so , so sorry for my long absence. School is killing me- I'm averaging like forty assignments a week and when I don't have homework I have chores and stuff. But I had a long weekend this time so I was thinking this up! It's not the best, but I hope you enjoy!!

Kevin doesn’t know what to expect on any side, and that’s kind of terrifying. He’s always been able to predict what was going to happen before. Always knew the path he should take, what moves he could make. It was like a chess game, the traps he sprung for Marv and Harry. Always two steps ahead. Now he felt like he was three steps  _ behind  _ and stumbling to catch up. 

When he gets home, he does his homework at the table, first thing. Kevin knows more than anyone how important it is to keep things running as if they’re normal, and besides, he appreciates his parents trying to help him with the assignments. He eats with his family, and tries to keep up normal conversation with his family. He listens to his parents and his siblings carefully, looking for  _ any  _ sign they’re thinking about dabbling with the Sharing, and is beyond grateful that he doesn’t hear anything.

And then he makes some excuse, and escapes up the stairs into his room, where he makes sure the door is closed as snug as it can, and paces. 

Here are the facts:

  * The Sharing is a terrifying shadow organization of some sort hidden behind a community service veneer. 
  * Most people either have no idea or are a part of it.
  * The only people who know about it seem to want to test him somehow. 
  * He has no one on his side, and no idea what to do. 



He can’t even talk about it to himself, because he knows that anyone could be listening, and then him and his whole family would be in danger.

Kevin can handle being in danger, he thinks. It’s not as if he doesn’t go through some event where he can only rely on himself once a year, minimum. He remembers all too well how he felt the first time he had to scare Marv and Harry away from his house- the heart-pounding fear, the mind racing, the complete unsurety as he looked at a dozen different angles. 

He figured something out then. And he’s figuring something out now, as his panic starts to slow, as the pieces slowly click into place.

He’s done a little poking around. 

Cassie runs a wildlife place and is best friends with a girl named Rachel, who’s  _ Tom’s  _ cousin. Tom’s little brother Jake is one of the people that Kevin saw approach the girls. A little more digging lets him discover that Jake’s friend is Marco. The other boy that they saw around is  _ supposedly  _ a cousin of Jake and Rachel’s, but no one had ever heard of him up until a few months before. 

He doesn’t know what they want from him. But he’s figured out that they’re just as suspicious of the unknown variable that makes the Sharing members so  _ off  _ as he is. Most of the time, they avoid even talking to them, but Kevin can see their guards go up when they do have to talk. 

It’s clear that Kevin needs to talk to them, but he’s not sure how. Or what would be smart. 

Kevin  _ hates  _ not being smart.

But he knows they’re going to talk to him. He can see it in the casual way they talk to him one at a time over the next few days, as he waits to see if he’ll get any ideas worth using. Cassie asks about his arm. Marco cracks jokes at the lunch line. Jake gives him a friendly nod in gym class, and Rachel jokes with him about his arm and who he fought, if they look worse off than he does. 

They’re all sizing him up the same way he’s sizing up them. Circling around him like wagons closing in. 

And one day, it comes to Kevin. He walks through the construction site every now and then- he knows the lay of the land around there pretty well. Well enough to lay traps down, if it comes down to it. And it probably will. 

The plan is stirring in his mind now, and Kevin  _ finally _ feels like he has more control over things.

He gets out his papers, and he gets out his markers, and he sets to work. He makes a mental note to warn Mike- the man who sleeps in the tunnels this time of year, and then puts that to the back of his mind, drawing the careful lines of the construction site. 

He hates it, but he’s calming down. He feels better already, coming up with his own plan. Taking things back into his own hands. 

Part of him wonders if he should be scared that he’s so relieved at the prospect that people might get  _ hurt  _ because of him.

But his family comes first. He can’t regret that. He  _ won’t  _ regret that.

(If he hugs his mother a little tighter that night to make himself feel like he’s still a kid, like he’ll never have blood on his hands, no one needs to know.)

* * *

When he goes to school the next Monday, after spending as many hours as he can snatch at the construction site as possible, his heart feels like it’s jumping into his throat. He’s never been this  _ direct  _ about things before, but he thinks this would be the best approach. If it were him, after all, he’d appreciate it.

He keeps his cool up until lunch time, carefully avoiding the other kids as much as he can. He wants to talk to the one person he thinks is most like him. And, in the lunch line, he gets his chance.

Marco sidles up to him as he’s holding out his tray.

“I almost wonder if the meals are better in prison.” He says, his voice joking, and Kevin manages a snort.

“No idea, but it’s better than when my older brother tried cooking.” He said. “Buzz was just sucking up to Mom and almost burned the house down.”

Marco whistles, looking almost impressed. Kevin swallows as he lets the lunch ladies verify he’s got everything. 

It’s now or never. 

Marco catches up to him, and Kevin decides it’s  _ now,  _ before his courage fails him and his weekend of work was worth nothing. 

“Hey,” He says, keeping his voice casual. “You want to hang out this weekend? I wanna check out that old construction site more. Think it would be neat to see what they have.”

Marco tenses up for a fraction of a moment, his brown eyes sizing up Kevin. Wondering if this is the moment he’s making his move. 

“Sure.” He says. “As long as you don’t climb that crap. Jake tried it once and almost broke his neck.”

Kevin puts on the most innocent smile he can, knowing it doesn’t fool Marco for even a second. 

“Dude, I’m thirteen. I don’t exactly have a death wish going. Though with some of the stunts I pull, my Mom would think otherwise.”

Marco laughs, turning to head to his seat. 

“Marco,” Kevin calls after him, “Bring your friends. The more, the merrier.”


	7. Chapter 7

As the days ticked by, Kevin got more and more nervous.

Each day that passed without him finding out what was going on was a day that his family’s safety was potentially threatened. And Marco and his friends  _ knew  _ what was going on. Or rather, Jake and his friends- it was clear that Jake was the ringleader of whatever they were doing. Marco was a strategist, like him.

Regardless, they  _ knew.  _ He could see it in the appraising looks they sent him when they thought he wasn’t looking, could hear it in the sarcastic comments Marco shot back and forth with him in the lunch line. And he would find out just  _ what  _ they knew, when the weekend hit.

It seemed to take an eternity, but Friday afternoon Kevin dropped his books off at home, and gathered his arsenal. Firecrackers- check. His BB gun and extra ammo- check. A bag of marbles- check. You never knew what could go wrong. And, even though he had hidden other firecrackers around and had tinkered with what he found in the construction park, he wasn’t sure that it would be enough. 

But it  _ had  _ to be.

He got to the construction site at four and climbed up into one of the earthmovers, checking with careful eyes to make sure that the fusing was all tied down and he’d be able to make a decoy with firecrackers. Thank god it hadn’t rained recently.

By four fifteen, he had double checked that all of his traps were ready and useable.

By four thirty, he was hiding in one of the tunnels scattered throughout the construction site, waiting to make his move.

At four forty-five, Rachel and Cassie entered the construction park, looking calm to anyone who couldn’t see the signs. Kevin saw how tense they were and it made him wind up even more than he already had been- they were ready for a fight.

Well, so was he. 

At four fifty-five, Jake and Marco entered the construction park from the opposite direction. Probably still trying not to appear as a cohesive unit, which was  _ ridiculous.  _

At five o’ clock, Marco started complaining. 

“Well, we all got our invites. Why’s the one who gave them being fashionably late? When’s he going to show his face?”

Kevin swallowed and shook his hands once, twice, three times, willing the nerves away. It was game time. Time to lay his cards down on the table. 

Peering carefully out from his hidey-hole, he saw Jake bend down for a minute. Good. So he noticed the walkie talkie. 

Kevin slid the matching one out of his pocket and spoke into it, his voice steadier than he felt. 

“He’ll show his face when you call off your hawk.”

Marco jumped, and his eyes narrowed, but Kevin just kept talking. 

“I know how common that kind of hawk is, I’ve done my research. But even the dumbest thirteen year old is going to figure something out when he sees the same kind of bird every time he looks up for a  _ week.”  _

He stops talking to give them a chance to explain, and hears the crackle of the other walkie talkie turning on.

“-ke, this is insane. Do you hear me?  _ Insane.”  _ Marco is hissing, and Kevin’s lips twitch up slightly. 

“What if we don’t?” Is all Jake says, his voice calm and  _ cold.  _ Kevin never thought another kid their age could even sound like that. It’s almost enough to scare him.

Almost.

“Then I’ve got a BB gun.” Kevin answers. “I’m a pretty good shot, too. I can get him in a wing or somethin’ so he’ll live, but he’ll be out of commission. I don’t want some sudden dive bombing. And whatever you attached to him to have him watch me I’d like to get rid of, please.”

Another pause. The walkie crackles again.

“If you even  _ think  _ about pulling a trigger, I will break  _ every-  _ “ Is all Rachel can say before he watches Cassie pull the walkie out of her hands. She tries to say something, but she doesn’t seem to get which button to press.

“Look,” Kevin says. “I don’t  _ want  _ to hurt animals. I’m not freaking crazy. But I don’t want to be watched, and I don’t want whatever you guys found through that thing to come back at me. I have a family I need to worry about.”

There is a rushed, whispered argument between the four teens, Marco and Rachel both gesturing wildly and Cassie holding up her hands in what’s clearly meant to be a calming manner. 

Finally, after several tense minutes pass, Rachel throws her head back and whistles sharply. Kevin watches as the red tailed hawk goes sweeping down to land on her shoulder. She twists her head in a way that  _ has  _ to be uncomfortable and starts whispering to it, and the walkie talkie comes to life again.

“Okay, he’s down.” Jake says, his voice just as smooth as it was before. “Are you going to tell us what you want now?”

Kevin creeps out of the tunnel he was hiding in, shoving the BB gun back in the waistband of his pants and eyeing the group warily. 

“I want to know what you guys know about the Sharing.” He tells them.

There’s a spark of surprise in Jake’s eyes, and Cassie looks downright shocked for a split second, but they get their expressions under control fairly quickly. 

“What makes you think there’s anything to know?” Marco asks, voice sharp.

“ _ Because.”  _ Kevin says, almost snapping, “They show up at my house to help unpack and immediately start pushing what a wonderful thing it is and how I should go to their barbecues. I go to sign up for school and Chapman’s pushing me to join it to “help me adjust to social life”. Every person that’s in it acts so  _ weird  _ I can hardly even look at them, and I watched them shoot someone with a damn  _ laser  _ gun!”

His voice is rising as he speaks, but he can’t help it. He keeps going.

“And you know, it’s one thing to have to guard your house from robbers, I’ve been doing that since I was eight, but how do you protect your family from a cult  _ this  _ widespread! It’s worse than  _ Scientology!”  _

“It’s not a cult.” Is all Jake offers, and Kevin scowls.

“Sure you’d say that, your brother is  _ one  _ of them.” He says, and watches Jake’s eyes grow stormy. “You know what I’m talking about! You know something I don’t, and I  _ need  _ to know what it is. Why can’t you just tell me?”

“Because,” Marco says, eyes cold, “We can’t trust you. Not yet, at least.”

Something long and flat goes flying at his head a moment later, and Kevin drops to the ground as blackness begins to close in.

  
His last thought before unconsciousness is that he must be hallucinating, because there is a blue  _ centaur  _ hovering above him.


End file.
